Various television (TV) conference systems, which constructs a network by personal computers (PC) each having a picture input unit connected thereto, have hitherto been proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-161136 proposes a system in which a motion picture recording camera and a still picture recording camera are separately connected to one set of a wireless picture transmission apparatus disposed in each conference hall to transmit the progress in a conference.
A reason why the motion picture camera and the still picture camera are separately used is that the amount of data of respective recording pictures constituting a motion picture must be suppressed due to the limit of a communication capability for transmitting data through a communication path used generally at present. However, the still picture requires a high resolution because it is often required to print out the still picture, while it is sufficient to employ a camera having a low resolution as the motion picture camera.
Accordingly, it is advantageous if a television conference system can be constructed using one set of a camera capable of capturing a motion picture and a still picture and transmitting them in an appropriate amount of data (or data rates).
On the other hand, as digital still cameras and video cameras come into widespread use, there can be available at present still cameras capable of recording a motion picture of a relatively short time and video cameras having a function for playing back a designated frame of a motion picture as a still picture. However, any of the existing cameras cannot output a motion picture and a still picture at a data rate and in a system that are suitable for a television conference system because they are not manufactured taking it into consideration that they are used in the television conference system.